FAS issues apology for 'oversight' in nominations for 'Story of the Year' award

SINGAPORE: The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) on Tuesday (Nov 21) apologised for what it said was an "oversight" in the compiling of submissions for its annual "Story of the Year" award.

This comes two days before the award is to be handed out at the FAS annual awards night. Two nominations from the original list were removed, to be replaced by two new ones.

In an email addressed to the media, FAS director of corporate communications Mustaffa Ehsan said that there had been an error with the inclusion of a story that did not "align with the original submission criteria".

"We acknowledge that all media outlets were explicitly instructed to submit stories related to the Singapore Premier League (SPL) exclusively, and each organisation was limited to one entry," he said.

"Unfortunately, due to a human mistake during the compilation process, an entry outside of the SPL scope was included and in addition, more than one submission from the same organisation was shortlisted for the final three."

As a result, FAS retracted two nominations - "Singapore footballer joins Borussia Dortmund women's team, puts studies on hold to pursue career" by CNA's Aslam Iskhandar Shah and Fabian Koh; and "I feel like a kid again: Izwan Mahbud back and ready to rediscover old groove'" by Lion City Sailors' Kenneth Tan - were retracted and replaced by two submissions which had been "assessed and graded by the judging panel for this award", said Mr Ehsan.

He added that the two initial nominations were retracted "in the spirit of fairness" to the other media outlets which had abided by the original criteria specified.

"I have personally reached out to the individuals from both CNA (Broadcast) and Lion City Sailors to explain and apologise for this